Ignacio Siberio was 80 when he steered his 25-foot boat roughly seven miles off the Florida Keys for a spearfishing trip on Dec. 11, 2005. A practicing civil attorney and experienced spearfisher, he usually entered the water alongside his nephew.
That day, with his nephew unable to join him, Siberio went alone — despite gusty winds and rough seas. Months later, he admitted the conditions should have kept him away, saying he never should have been out there.
Siberio slipped into the water with his speargun and spent about three hours hunting before deciding it was time to head back. When he surfaced, his boat had vanished, apparently torn loose by a storm front that dislodged its anchors.
He could spot the boat drifting in the distance and tried to swim after it for hours, but he couldn’t close the gap. Eventually, exhausted, he stopped chasing it and began treading water, fearing he could be swept toward the Straits of Florida.
After about an hour, he noticed five buoys — each roughly a foot long — floating together. He swam to them and clung on as tightly as he could. As the temperature dropped overnight, he focused on staying calm, later explaining that mental discipline was the key to surviving until morning.
Meanwhile, his nephew and a friend launched a desperate search and alerted the Coast Guard, heading to familiar fishing spots where Siberio was known to dive.
Early the next morning, the searchers found him. Siberio had cut the buoys and wrapped them around his body, using them as flotation as he swam toward shore.
He was pulled aboard a rescue vessel about 18 hours after first realizing he was stranded at sea. He was taken back to his home in Tavernier, Florida, and reunited with loved ones, including his wife, Gloria, who was 68 at the time. He declined a trip to the hospital.
The ordeal didn’t end his passion for fishing. In the months that followed, he went back out on the water multiple times — though he stressed he’d learned a hard lesson.
He later told CBC Radio that one detail still amazed him: the buoy that kept him afloat overnight carried the number 731 — matching his July 31 birthdate. “Can you imagine that?” he said.
